Qatar carved out a piece of footballing history for themselves on Friday, winning the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in a 3-1 upset win over four-time winners Japan in Abu Dhabi, UAE .

From the universality of Total Football to the Petrosian-like stoutness of Jose Mourinho, it has always been said football has an evolutionary or permutable quality.

Rules have sometimes influenced dominant tactics, much like changes to offside laws creating the W-M formation, or the back-pass rule facilitating the implementation of targeted pressing and higher defensive lines.

More often than not, however, tactical shifts and trends are based on ideology.

Qatar carved out a piece of footballing history for themselves on Friday, winning the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in a 3-1 upset win over four-time winners Japan in Abu Dhabi, UAE .

Almoez Ali scored with a spectacular overhead kick for a record ninth goal of the Asian Cup to set Qatar on their way to a first continental title with a stunning 3-1 win over four-times champions Japan on Friday.

Ali's early goal took him past Ali Daei's 1996 tally and, combined with a 27th minute strike from Abdulaziz Hatem and a late Akram Afif penalty, helped the Qataris make an emphatic statement ahead of their hosting of the 2022 World Cup.